Mechanical Properties of Alkali-Treated Sugar Palm (Arenga Pinnata) Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

The aims of this study is to determine the mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact properties) of Arenga pinnata fiber reinforced epoxy polymer composite after introduce the alkali treatment to the Arenga pinnata fiber. The fiber was treated by alkali solution with 0.25 M and 0.5 M NaOH solution for 1 hr, 4 hrs, and 8 hrs soaking time. The fiber was mixed with with epoxy and hardener at 10% of volume with long random type of fiber arrangement. Hand lay up process in this experiments were to produce specimen test. The mechanical properties of those fibers are 466.07 MPa for the tensile strength and 3.9 GPa for the modulus, the tensile strength of the pure epoxy is 69.39 MPa and 2.3 GPa for the modulus. Results from the tests show that the improving mechanical properties of Arenga pinnata fiber reinforced epoxy polymer were proven by using the alkali treatment. The ultimate tensile strength took place at 0.25 M NaOH solution with 1-hour soaking time, i.e. 49.875 MPa, an improvement of 16.4% from untreated composite. The tensile modulus at this condition gave the improvement of 13.6% from untreated fiber composite. The ultimate flexural strength also occurred at 0.25 M NaOH solution with 1 hour of soaking time, i.e 96.71 MPa, an improvement of 24.42% from untreated fiber composite. However, the ultimate flexural modulus happened at 0.5 M NaOH solution with 4 hours soaking time, i.e. 6948 MPa; on improvement of 148% from untreated composite. The ultimate impact strength of treated Arenga pinnata fiber reinforced epoxy composite took place at 0.5 M NaOH solution with 8 hours soaking time, i.e. 60 J/m with improving of 9.8% from untreated composite. The SEM analysis has been conducted to provide the analysis on interface adhesion between the surfaces of fiber with the matrix

The effect of alkaline treatment on tensile properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced epoxy composites

A study on the effect of alkaline treatment on tensile properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced epoxy composites is presented in this paper. The treatment was carried out using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solutions at two different concentrations and three different soaking times. The hydrophilic nature of sugar palm fibre makes it difficult to adhere to hydrophobic epoxy and therefore posed the problem of interfacial bonding between fibre and matrix and such treatment was needed to alleviate such problem. The composite specimens were tested for tensile property determination. Some fractured specimens were examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study the microstructure of the materials. Inconsistent results were obtained for tensile strengths, which indicate that the treatment is not very effective yet to improve the interfacial bonding. However, for tensile modulus, the results are much higher than untreated fibre composite specimens, which proved the effectiveness of the treatment

Thermal properties of alkali-treated sugar palm fibre reinforced high impact polystyrene composites

Thermal characterization of sugar palm fibre (SPF), reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites, was studied by means of thermogravimetric analysis. The effects of alkaline treatment and compatibilizing agent on the thermal stability of the composites were evaluated. Alkaline treatment was carried out by soaking the fibres in 4 and 6% of NaOH solution, while treatment with compatibilizing agent was employed by adding 2 and 3% maleic anhydride-graft-polystyrene (MA-g-PS) to the composites. Both the treatments were aimed to improve the mechanical performance of the composites. From the study, the thermal stability of the treated composites was found to be higher than that of untreated composites. It is shown that the incorporation of sugar palm fibre influences the degree of thermal stability of the composites. The treatments on composites also contributed to shifting the peak temperature of degradation of the composites. In other words, there are strong chemical reactions between the components of the treated composites. The thermal stability of the composites, with alkaline treatment and compatibilizing agent, was found to be better as compared to those of the untreated composites

Flexural properties of alkaline treated sugar palm fibre reinforced epoxy composites

A study of the effect of alkaline treatment on the flexural properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced epoxy composites is presented in this paper. The composites were reinforced with 10% weight fraction of the fibres. The fibres were treated using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with 0.25 M and 0.5 M concentration solution for 1 hour, 4 hours and 8 hours soaking time. The purpose of treating fibres with alkali was to enhance the interfacial bonding between matrix and fibre surfaces. The maximum flexural strength occurred at 0.25 M NaOH solution with 1 hour of soaking time, i.e 96.71 MPa, improving by 24.41% from untreated fibre composite. But, the maximum flexural modulus took place at 0.5 M NaOH solution with 4 hours soaking time, i.e. 6948 MPa, improving by 148% from untreated composite

Effects of alkaline treatment and a compatibilizing agent on tensile properties of sugar palm fibre-reinforced high impact polystyrene composites

The effects of alkaline treatment and a compatibilizing agent on the tensile properties of sugar palm fibre-reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites were studied. Two concentrations of an alkali solution (4% and 6%) and two percentages of a compatibilizing agent (2% and 3%) were used in this study. The alkaline treatment was carried out by immersing the fibres in 4% and 6% alkali solutions for 1 hour. A 40 wt. % of sugar palm fibre (SPF) was blended with HIPS and the compatibilizing agent using a Brabender melt mixer at 165 °C. All the treated fiber composites showed tensile strength enhancement compared with untreated composites. The maximum strength increase was 35%, which was achieved by 4% alkali treatment; however, there was no improvement in the tensile modulus

The tensile properties of single sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibre

This paper presents a brief description and characterization of the sugar palm fibres, still rare in the scientific community, compared to other natural fibres employed in polymeric composites. Sugar palm fibres are cellulose-based fibres extracted from the Arenga pinnata plant. The characterization consists of tensile test and the morphological examination. The average tensile properties results of fibres such as Young's modulus is equal to 3.69 GPa, tensile strength is equal to 190.29 MPa, and strain at failure is equal to 19.6%

Influence of layering sequences on tensile properties of hybrid woven Jute/Ramie fibre reinforced polyester composites

Many researchers around the globe have shifted their focus onto the renewable resources lately. This trend is due to the number of resources that are almost reaching its critical stage hence the exploration of natural fibre composites has also caught the world's attention. In this research the effect of the number of layers, stacking sequences, and orientation of plain weave jute and ramie fibre single/hybrid composites on tensile properties were investigated. The stacking sequences consisted of two and three layered of laminated composite of pure jute (JJ, JJJ), pure ramie (RR, RRR) and ramie/ramie/ramie (RRR), whereas jute/ramie (JR), jute/jute/ramie (JJR), jute/ramie/jute (JRJ), ramie/jute/ramie (RJR), jute/ramie/ramie (JRR) were included under the hybrid composites category. The comparisons of tensile properties for each of the pure polyester, single, and hybrid composites were evaluated afterwards. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of the composites that was constructed with different fibre direction of warp and weft for each layer were also analyzed. The hand lay-up method was employed for all the fabrication of the composite specimens. From the results, it was observed that the tensile properties of the skin-core type composites (RJR, JRJ) have showed a better performance compared to the skin-eccentric types (RRJ, JJR) with similar ramie content. Attributed to a good fibre rigidity of Ramie fibre, the tensile strength and tensile modulus values could be enhanced with the addition of the ramie content in the composite mixture. The tensile properties were proven to also be improved with the increase number of woven layers in the composite. The Jute/ramie hybrid composite has exhibited very high potential in the future development of the automotive industry

Mechanical and thermal properties of short sugar palm (Arenga pinnata MERR.) fibre-reinforced high impact polystrene composites

Sugar palm fibre (SPF) is a promising natural fibre used in reinforcing polymer matrix composites. The fibre has good tensile properties and could also be suitable as reinforcing agents in composite materials. This research is important because no study has been conducted about the using of sugar palm fibre to reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites previously. New natural composites of sugar palm fibre (SPF) reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) matrix have been produced by using melt mixing and compression moulding method. Tensile, flexural, and impact tests were performed to determine the mechanical properties, while dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed to determine the thermal properties of SPF-HIPS composites by varying the sugar palm fibre contents. It was found that the increase in fibre loading on HIPS matrix enhanced the tensile and flexural modulus of the composites. However, tensile strength decreased with the increase in fibre loading due to poor compatibility of interface between fibre and polymer surfaces. The flexural strength also increased. However, all of the values of flexural strength of SPF-HIPS composites were lower than the pure HIPS matrix. The addition of short SPF decreased the impact strength of these composites. It was found that from the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) the SPF-HIPS composites showed better thermal stability than pure HIPS matrix. The moisture content of the SPF-HIPS composites increase and this behavior contribute to weakness in strength. The major barrier in utilising natural fibres in reinforcing polymer composites is compatibility issue. It is because the weak interfacial bonding between hydrophilic fibres and hydrophobic polymers. The alkali treatment and compatibilizing agent were performed to the SPF-HIPS composites at the fibre content of 40%. The alkali treatment was performed by immersing fibres in 4% and 6% alkali solution, and the incorporation of 2% and 3% polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-blockpoly( styrene-graft-maleic-anhydride) were used as compatibilizing agent. Both alkali treatment and compatibilizing agent treatment increased the tensile strength of composites, while the alkali treatment at the 4% level showed the highest tensile strength, improvement of about 35% from untreated composites. Therefore, alkali treatment with 6% NaOH solution could improve the flexural strength, flexural modulus and impact strength of the composites from the untreated composites by 12%, 19% and 34% respectively. Compatibilizing agent showed the improvement on the impact strength, i.e 6% and 16% improvement for 2% and 3% MAH respectively, meanwhile, no enhancement of the composites properties when subjected to flexural properties testing. Finally, modification of the SPF-HIPS composites, using the compatibilizing agent and the fibres treated with alkali has brought a slight improvement to the peak temperature of decomposition of composites. It can be stated that the the modification of composites with alkaline treatment and compatibilizing agent on the high impact polystyrene composites resulted in higher thermal stability of the composites than the high impact polystyrene polymer alone

Modeling and Experimental Validation of Tensile Properties of Sugar Palm Fiber Reinforced High Impact Polystyrene Composites

Sugar palm fiber is one of the most abundant natural fibers used in biocomposites. However, prediction of the mechanical properties of such natural fiber reinforced composites is still challenging. Most of the theoretical modelings are based the micromechanical method. There have been little studies involving statistical approach for prediction of mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced composites. In this study, the tensile properties of short sugar palm fiber-reinforced high impact polystyrene (SPF-HIPS) composites obtained by means of statistical approach were investigated and compared with the experimental observations and with micromechanical models available in the literature. Statistical approach was used to predict the performance of the composite part with different fiber loadings. A two-parameter Weibull distribution function was used to model the fiber length distribution in the composite. For the experimental validation, the composites were prepared by hot compression technique for different fiber loadings (10 %, 20 %, 30 %, 40 % and 50 % by weight). Tensile testing of the composites was carried out according to ASTM D638 to obtain the composites tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. Experimental results showed that the tensile strength of the composite reduced due to the addition of sugar palm fibers, whereas the elastic modulus increased by a factor of up to 1.34. The current statistical model predicted the tensile properties of SPF-HIPS composite close to the experimental values. It was found that statistical approach with standard micromechanical models can be used to predict the mechanical properties of sugar palm fiber reinforced HIPS composites. Hence, this study could assist in decisions regarding the design of natural fiber reinforced composite products

Study of thermo-mechanical properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites for use as exterior material in automotive industry

The present work aimed to develop of sugar palm fibre (SPF) to reinforce thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composites. The extruder and the compression molding machine were used to fabricate this composite. Fibre surface treatment then conducted to enhance the properties of sugar palm fibre composites. Different factors are studied the optimization of processing, fibre size, and mixing ratio of SPF-TPU. Alkali, permanganate, and the microwave methods were used to enhance the surface properties to make it to have more adhesion between the fibre and polymer. Tensile, flexural, impact, properties and scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetric (TG), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) for SPF/TPU was tested. Composites of 10, 20, and 30% fibre loadings were fabricated and tested. Degradation behavior of the composites also be conducted by using accelerated weathering chamber follow the ASTM standard. This composite system could apply in automobile industry as reinforced plastic parts in different types of vehicles also produce friendly environment materials